It’s rare that a player winning their second major championship of the year is overshadowed by the runner up. But that’s exactly what Brooks Koepka dealt with on Sunday at Bellerive Country Club, as his impressive march to victory in the PGA Championship seemed to play second fiddle to Tiger Woods’ charge up the leaderboard.
Koepka shot a 4-under 66 to finished at 16-under-par, and never gave up the lead on his way to claiming his third career major title, all of which have come in the past two seasons.
Tiger Comes Close, but Can’t Catch Koepka
But despite never falling out of first place, Koepka’s path to victory wasn’t easy. Adam Scott started the back nine with three birdies in four holes to put himself in a tie for the lead until Koepka put himself back in a comfortable position with birdies on the 15th and 16th holes.
Meanwhile, Woods was making the kind of charge that was characteristic of his prime years. Woods shot a six-under 64, his best ever final round at a major, and for a while it looked like he might just climb all the way back to the lead as he briefly did at the Open Championship.
After birdies on 12 and 13, Woods had climbed to 13-under, just one shot behind Koepka and Scott. A bogey on the par-four 14th was answered by another birdie on the next hole, when kept Woods in touch with the leaders until Koepka broke away late.
When Tiger birdied his final hole, his 14-under-par total made him the clubhouse leader, and gave him the faintest of hopes of seeing Koepka stumble with a double bogey on the 18th. But a safe par from the leader put away the tournament, while a bogey from Scott meant that Woods finished alone in second place.
Koepka Joins Elite Company
Woods received the lion’s share of the attention in the final hours of the tournament: at 42, the 14-time major champion proved that his British Open performance wasn’t a fluke, and that he still has what it takes to be in the mix against the best players in the world.
But while much of the golf world was in awe of Woods, Tiger himself saved his praise for the winner.
“It’s tough to beat when the guy hits it 340 down the middle,” Woods said about Koepka after the tournament concluded. “I played with him in a practice round and he was literally hitting it 340, 350 in the air. And when a guy’s doing that and hitting it straight and as good a putter as he is, it’s tough to beat.”
The victory made Koepka only the fifth player to win three majors before age 30 since World War II, joining Woods, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and Jordan Spieth in that exclusive club. The magnitude of that achievement wasn’t lost on Koepka, especially after a wrist injury kept him out of action for four months earlier this year.
“When I look at what I’ve done in the past two months…it’s incredible,” Koepka said after the final round. “Looking where I was, sitting on my couch watching the Masters, and to think I would do this, I would’ve laughed at you and told you there was no way, no chance.”
